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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
Pupils on school rolls—In January, 1960 there was a total of 433,415 pupils on the day
school roll; 238,931 attending primary schools, 184,066 at secondary schools, 1,800 at
nursery schools and 8,618 at day special schools. In January, 1959 there were 437,076 pupils
on roll.
Ministry of Education circulars—Circular 352 superseded circular 269 and dealt with the
changes brought about by the series of new regulations (S.I's (1959) Nos. 336, 362, 363,
365, 366) which took the place of the School Health Service and Handicapped Pupils
Regulations, 1953. The main effect of the new regulations is to relax central control over
details of the service; in particular the frequency of inspections is no longer prescribed by
regulation.
Circulars 347 and 348 dealing with child guidance and maladjusted pupils are mentioned
on page 106.
Medical inspections
Since 1958 routine medical inspections have been analysed by year of birth to conform
with Ministry of Education requirements. To facilitate annual comparisons the year of
birth has been turned into ' age ' (by subtracting year of birth from year of inspection) in
the tables throughout this section of the report.
On 1 January, 1959 the Council's revised scheme for the medical inspection of school
children came into operation (see pages 106-110 of my report for 1958). One effect of this
was to make the intermediate inspections a year later in the child's school life and, consequently,
fewer of these inspections were made during 1959 than in 1958.
Another effect was the abolition of nutrition re-inspections. In 1959 only 3,622 took
place, mainly during the first quarter and these were final inspections. The number of
ordinary re-inspections increased by almost 12 per cent, which suggests that the school
medical officers are continuing to see some children who were previously ' nutrition ' cases.
Reviews of secondary school children were less than a third of the 1958 figure.
The number of children seen at routine medical inspections was 31.4 per cent, of the
school roll compared with 39.4 per cent, in 1958 and 39.0 per cent. in 1957.
Routine medical inspections
Age groups 1958 1959
No. % No. %
4 and less 7,690 4.5 7,660 5.6
5 29,514 17.1 29.317 21.6
6 6,508 3.8 7,069 5.2
7 30,775 17.9 13,278 9.7
8 5.086 3.0 8,540 6.3
9 1,709 1.0 3,128 2.3
10 2,455 1.4 1,817 1.3
11 44,635 25.9 15,424 11.3
12 6,126 3.5 8,744 6.4
13 1,930 1.1 2,896 2.1
14 8,812 5.1 8,204 60
15 and over 27,031 15.7 30,186 22.2
172,271 100.0 136,263 100.0
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